The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1887-07-23
LIFE AT SEA.
How They Stand Watches ON ap
Ocean Steamer.

The officers and sailors are divided
into two watches, and keep watch and
watch from the tina of her departure
from one port till the time of arrival mt
the other. These watches are: First
watch, from p. m. till midnight; mid
die watch, from midnight till q. M;
morning watch, from 4 a. m. till 8 a. NJ.
forenoon watch, from a. m. till noon
afternoon watch, from noon till p. M.
then come the dog watches, the first
from p. IN. till 6 p. M; the second,
from 6 p. m. till Sp. m. by this arrange
ment seven instead of six watches are
made, the intention being to change the
turn of the night watch every "A hours.
BY the way,i WAS face.iously remarkably
Theodore Hook, that the term dog
watch comes from these watches being
"curtailed." The chief officer, third
and fifth officers, AMI half the sailors
are in one watch, (the port watchD the
second, fourth and sixth officers and
half the sailors make up the starboard
watch. When the chief officer IS on
deck, he is stationed on the bridge
where the teleGraphs to the engine
room, wheelhouss and other parts of the
vessel are fixed; the third officer is on
the lookout bridge, forward and the fifth
officer is ut the ron, attending to tho
steering of the ship; two of the sailors
are stationed as far forward as possible
- lookout men, one sailor Is stationed
ct the crank hatch to pass an order TO
the engine room should anything 60
wrong with the telegraph to the engine
room, and quartermaster is stationed
in the after wheelhouse to attend to the
steering engine and also to look after
the wheel chains; in thick weather the
loOkouts are doubled, and in heavy
weather additional men are stationed in
the after wheelhOuse to put the brakes
on the circle on the rudder head should
anything go wrong with the wheel
chains, steering engine, etc, in which
case the hand steering gear could be at
tached III less than a minute; the re-
naming part of the watch, under the
boatswain, attend to making or shorten
ing sail, washing decks, etc. When the
starboard watch comes on deck the Sec
Ond officer relieves the chief officer, the
fourth the third officer, and the sixth
the fifth officer, the lookouts, etc, being
relieved by members of the watch com
ing on duty. Every care and attention
is paid by the officers and lookouts or it
would be impossible to navigate ocean
steamers as safel = as is done. This rou-
tine is carried on from the beginning
till the end of the passage, and through
sunshine and darkness, storm and tep:-
pest, the only change is removing the
lookout men from the fore end of the
ship, whcre they might have chance
Of bling washed away, to the lookout
bridge, or even to the main bridge, but
this latter is only done In very bad
weather. Words.
Nina Van Zandt, the proxy-bride OF
Spies, the condemned Anarchist, who IS
confined in Chicago, ILL.,, under sentence
of death, IS dying of quick consumption.
Some of the Mexican papers are load
in their denunciation of Americans, claim
ing that American capital is quietly get.
ting possession of all the great financial
and railroad interests of the country.